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Chess is different in that the pieces are literally black and white in their color. Blacklist and whitelist are used as linguistic symbols: black==bad white==g

Chess is different in that the pieces are literally black and white in their color. Blacklist and whitelist are used as linguistic symbols: black==bad white==good. That is pretty different to me.

godelski 5y ago
I'm no expert, but I thought the black and white thing originates really from night and day. It is easier to see when there is light (often perceived as white) than it is at night (often perceived as black). We used white and black to convey the color of the sky. A white color reflects light while a black color absorbs light. This is how I've always thought about it. I never associated this with skin color until someone told me. I still have never internalized this because it just doesn't make sense to me. I'm open to being wrong but to be this connection of archetypal meanings and skin color is a stretch. I don't look at a white phone or black phone and think good or bad (in fact I have a black phone and prefer dark colors while my skin tone is the opposite). One which requires a lot of fundamental change in language and how we think. Because I'm sure I'm not the only one that has codified this representation in my mind. And most of us should understand archetypes are not how you go about judging the world or people. I don't see a person dressed in red and think "angry" (which would be a different emotion in a different culture), or yellow and "happy". I just see colors. That is pretty different to me.
Dylan16807 5y ago
The lists are also referring to the concepts of literal black and literal white, not the skin colors.
- darkwater 5y ago
  So allowed items were written white ink on black paper and disallowed items were written black ink on white paper? Or the other way round maybe?
raxxorrax 5y ago
Try not to apply that logic to skin color please.
jtsiskin 5y ago
Star Wars - “come to the dark side”. Lord of the Rings, Sauron is the “dark lord”. The Dark Ages vs. the Age of Enlightenment. Yin and Yang. I don’t believe all these authors were racist. “Roughly 40% of Americans claim that they would be afraid to walk within 1 mile of their homes at night… 54% of all participants rated the dark within their top five fears” Perhaps this would be solved if we used different words to describe skin tone than we did light. If “white skin” was called “wumbo skin” and “black skin” called “mumbo skin” it would be more clear the etymology of which terms were referring to day vs night rather than skin tone. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.psichi.org/resource/resmgr/journal_2015/Summer15JNLevos.pdf https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.psichi.org/resource/resmgr/journal... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-and-white_dualism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-and-white_dualism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_white_hat_symbolism_in_film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_white_hat_symbolism_...

Chess is different in that the pieces are literally black and white in their color. Blacklist and whitelist are used as linguistic symbols: black==bad white==good. That is pretty different to me.

godelski 5y ago

I'm no expert, but I thought the black and white thing originates really from night and day. It is easier to see when there is light (often perceived as white) than it is at night (often perceived as black). We used white and black to convey the color of the sky. A white color reflects light while a black color absorbs light. This is how I've always thought about it. I never associated this with skin color until someone told me. I still have never internalized this because it just doesn't make sense to me. I'm open to being wrong but to be this connection of archetypal meanings and skin color is a stretch. I don't look at a white phone or black phone and think good or bad (in fact I have a black phone and prefer dark colors while my skin tone is the opposite). One which requires a lot of fundamental change in language and how we think. Because I'm sure I'm not the only one that has codified this representation in my mind. And most of us should understand archetypes are not how you go about judging the world or people. I don't see a person dressed in red and think "angry" (which would be a different emotion in a different culture), or yellow and "happy". I just see colors. That is pretty different to me.

Dylan16807 5y ago

The lists are also referring to the concepts of literal black and literal white, not the skin colors.

darkwater 5y ago
So allowed items were written white ink on black paper and disallowed items were written black ink on white paper? Or the other way round maybe?

raxxorrax 5y ago

Try not to apply that logic to skin color please.

jtsiskin 5y ago

Star Wars - “come to the dark side”. Lord of the Rings, Sauron is the “dark lord”. The Dark Ages vs. the Age of Enlightenment. Yin and Yang. I don’t believe all these authors were racist. “Roughly 40% of Americans claim that they would be afraid to walk within 1 mile of their homes at night… 54% of all participants rated the dark within their top five fears” Perhaps this would be solved if we used different words to describe skin tone than we did light. If “white skin” was called “wumbo skin” and “black skin” called “mumbo skin” it would be more clear the etymology of which terms were referring to day vs night rather than skin tone. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.psichi.org/resource/resmgr/journal_2015/Summer15JNLevos.pdf https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.psichi.org/resource/resmgr/journal... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-and-white_dualism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-and-white_dualism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_white_hat_symbolism_in_film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_white_hat_symbolism_...